Donald Trump’s plan for a 50pc tariff on copper is designed to turbocharge the American metals industry and safeguard supplies for the US military.
But then, you know.
Given that it will protect the US copper industry from overseas competition it’ll make it worse, much worse. And everyone will end up buying their cable from abroad, not their copper.
“safeguard supplies for the US military.”
I think that anytime someone mentions the military in terms of trade, you should be wary of what is being pulled. It only gets mentioned because it’s the only justification.
Making sure that you’ve got critical materials, critical medicines really matters, that’s for sure. But there isn’t some sort of land or sea war going on, or even on the horizon that is going to mean the USA can’t import a shitload of copper from Chile or Peru. They’re already mining about a million tons of it in the USA. It doesn’t seem like something that is that hard to ramp up, if necessary. We know the Israelis were doing it in 4th century BC.